Cloud Computing Not Immune to Viruses
As more and more solution providers are adapting their various applications to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud, so have cyber-criminals adapted their behavior to take advantage of this new technology. As an example, there is new variation of the Zeuss Trojan virus making the rounds that targets the Ceridan payroll service. This variant has both a Keystroke Logger, and does an image capture of the Ceridian payroll services corporate web page that the user accesses. This includes taking automatic screen-shots of the answers that a user selects including the image based authentication icon that the site uses.
In another recent example, cyber criminals stole $217,000 from MECA’s (Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority) by accessing their Payroll system, and adding fake employees. The attackers then transferred money through MECA’s payroll system to the bank accounts of U.S residents hired through work-at-home scams, who then subsequently wired the funds out of the country.
It is expected that this sort of activity will only intensify as more criminal’s realize that it is more profitable to attack corporate payroll service companies than individual PC’s.
Unfortunately, running an anti-virus program is often not enough to prevent Zeus type infections. This is primarily because cyber criminals use these types of Trojan horse attacks to perform reconnaissance missions before launching their actual attacks. This allows them alter the malware to evade detection by those applications.as time goes on.
This means that now, more than ever, all departments of an organization need to use due diligence to protect against these types of attacks.
If you would like more information about additional ways to protect your systems, please contact the CCS Retail Systems Support Department. CCS offers a full audit of your servers and user devices.